Newspaper Page Text
May 22, 1912]
ABSTRACT OF TUB SECRETARY'S
REPORT OX THE AVOltK DONE
FOR SCHOOLS and colleges
to The general asseal
bly OF 1912.
The Permanent Committee of Systematic
Beneficence having assigned me
to work ih the field, at the same time
specifying the raising of scholarships
for the Students' Loan Fund, my time
and strength have been constantly detoted
to these duties.
The Students' Loau Fund.
It is a matter for thankfulness that
this fund has been able to grant loans
io luirnseu young men ana women scattered
from Hampden Sidney, Va., to
Brownwood, in western Texas, none
having been refused who comply with
the reasonable conditions that are found
needful to protect the fund from losses.
And hence, when it became apparent
that the stringency in Church finances
due to the inception of the Assembly's
new and wise Plan, and also to
the alarming condition of our Foreign
Mission treasury, had shut the door
upon further applications for scholarships
for the present, the secretary
could cheerfully turn his attention to
what many wise brethren deem the
most important work for the cause,
namely, the awakening of our membership
to the vital Importance of providing
Christian education for all our
youth. And to do this effectively discourses
have been carefully prepared
expounding the reasons for giving this
Education that are found in certain very
serious conditions in our Church and in
its environment. To make these discourses
available for public worship
they have been cast into the form of
Gospel Messages.
The reception given them by the
brethren in the ministry and membership
encourage the secretary in charge
to hope that help is furnished In this
way to the movement in behalf of
Christian Education. And certainly, al
lowing fully for any defects In the presentation
of them, the facts are In themselves
sufficiently serious and threatening
to move every heart.
Progress of the Educational Revival.
The two strong Synods of Virginia
and North Carolina have secured for
the endowment and equipment of Union
Theological Seminary something over
(322,000. And thus the Synod of Virginia
has been set free to join with the
trustees of Hampden Sidney in a campaign
for the (200,000 urgently needed
to place this worthy institution on a
proper footing, while the North Carolina
Synod haB actually secured (300,000
for Davidson College. In South
Carolina a vigorous and successful effort
is in progress for (200,000, (100,000
of which goes to its Presbyterian College,
and (50,000 each to Columbia Seminary
and Chlcora College for women.
The Synod of Georgia rejoices with Agnes
Scott College in the large benefac
"vu iimi nas greauy widened the usefulness
of this institution, which takes
rank with the best in the land. And
in the Synod of Texas the wise plan of
placing in the hands of its able executive
Committee of iSchools and Colleges
the entire management of securing and
disbursing all funds for its seven institutions
is proving so advantageous
us to give confidence that tbe sum of
Si,000,000 will in due time be realized.
For, all danger from possible friction
among the schools is eliminated, the
weight and influence of the entire Synod
is put into every application for means,
and wise counsels are Invoked not only
for the Investing of all funds, but also
for supplying the most important needs
of each institution. So wise and effective
is this Texas plan that it is confidently
recommended to all who have
similar problems to solve.
The Care and Overnight of Presbyterian
Youth in State and Other Nondenomlnatlonnl
Institutions.
And while thus pressing with due
diligence our fiffort* In hahoO r<?,"?>
.U WVUUIL Wi V-/UU1 OU
education, we shall do well to give
earnest attention to the spiritual needs
of our youth in State Universities and
other non-denominational institutions.
To this duty we have been already
oalled by three General Assemblies.
But the cause is too great to permit us
to rest in peace as we now stand. Dr.
David J. Woods, of Blacksburg, Va.,
in his able address on this theme, now
issued as a tract by our Executive -Committee,
calls attention to the census
which, out of the 65,000 students of the
higher education in the South, assigns
'^.000 of them to non-denominational inhibitions.
It is estimated that not less
than 6,000 are Presbyterians while
Probably an equal or even largest pot->
THE PRESBYTERI
tion are net connected with any evangelical
Church. For this large company
of her children and countrymen
our Church is at present doing very
little Indeed. Yet when we recall our
Lord's command to feed his lambs, and
when we consider the immense influence
that these bright young people
are sure to wield as lawyers, judges,
legislators, Writers, teachers, professors,
scientists and ministers, how Can We
excuse .this inactivity to Ourselves and
to Chtistf
The dOor swings wide open for Us
to enter and do whatsoever good we
wish. The sixth tteport Of the Carnegie
Foundation in ah able and scholarly
article, voices the sentiments of practically
every educator, when it states
that roll I a r,o?r 1 J -- --
v...o.wu uutt icuuguiKcu as an
essential element in every complete education.
My own experience and observation
attest that a welcome will be
accorded to all wise efforts to present
the claims of religion to these poor
PresbyterianB and to their fellow students
whom we would not wish to make
proselytes, but Christians only. That
good results may be confidently anticipated,
the experience of Dr. Woods amply
attests. Before he went to his
charge in the village church no students
from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute
were known to have entered the
ministry. Their courses of study naturally
tend to fit them to be engineers
and "captains of industry." But in
1910-11 there were five of these students
in Union Seminary, and otherB elsewhere
seeking the ministry. A Christian
woman has rerenHv houn
? V.J k/vou Uf?iucu
to me who is God's agent in leading
two young men who are students in the
Georgia School of Technology to volunteer
for the Foreign Mission work.
The Alabama brethren are doing their
duty by planting a strongly 'manned
church Just at the gate of their State
institutions. Brethren in Texas have
made a strong alliance between their
State University and all of the denominational
colleges. We may accomplish
much by taking measures to unite godly
men in the faculties of these State institutions
with God's people in the committees
in caring for these young people.
We may use the college Y. M. C. A.
for doing an important share in this
work, though It is disobedience to our
Tjord to give it up entirely into such
hands. We may take Thomas Jefferson's
wise advice hy putting "Bible
Chairs'" in close proximity to tbese Institutions.
We may build comfortable
and attractive "Presbyterian Homes"
for such of our young people as care
for them and put refined Christian wo
men in them as "House-Mothers." We
may send some of our ablest and most
attractive ministers to preach, lecture
end hold nrivate conversations. And
when we do our duty, God will fulfil
his promise, he will do his part whtn
we cbey him.
"The Galax Gatherers," or The Gospel
Among the Highlanders, by Rev. E.
O. Guerrant, D. D. $1.00. Presbyterian
Committee of Publication,
Richmond, Va.
The latest and most effective method
of creating Interest In missions is by
educating the people In the facts of the
mission fields. The author of "The
Galax Gatherers," l^ev. Dr. Guerrant,
has taken this plan of arousing interest
in the "Highlanders" of the Alleghany
and Blue Ridge Mountains and their
outlying spurs.
Dr. Guerrant 1s particularly well fitted
for this task. The art of writing
well, so difficult for most men to attain,
is his by native endowment. He
has been for forty years most intimate
ly acquainted with the Highlanders?
first as a soldier?then as physician,
and then as preacher and evangelist.
He has spent so much time in the
mountains and has loved their people
so devotedly and served them so helpfully
in so many ways that it is easy
for him to tell us of them. To read this
'book is to learn of them. No one of us
ought to be willingly ignorant of these
fine people, our nearest neighbors. This
volume takes us over the high mountains
into their humble homes, and introduces
us to new friends and new
fields of interest and opportunity. This
volume, full of human facts, is meeting
with a cordial reception. There is no
more picturesque or virile people anywherii
than these Highlanders, and no
AN OF THE SOUTH
more fruitful mission field than these
mountains, and no more faithful or
entertaining account of them to be had
anywhere than in this attractive voluse,
"The Galax Gatherers."
IX) OITR CHURCH COURTS MEET
TOO FREQUENTLY?
One hears the remark more often
now than formerly that "our church
courts meet too frequently." A good
many of our busy pastors are recognizing
the fact that there is much reason
and common sense in the assertion.
There is the spring meeting of PreBbytery,
tied up largely with routine matters,
such as the consideration of statistical
reports, of overtures to the Assembly,
the election of Commissioners
to the Assembly and the like. Following
close upon this meeting comes the
Assembly. In the fall comes another
meeting of the Presbytery, not nearly
so busy or bo well attended as the
spring meeting, and in its atmosphere
partaking decidedly of the perfunctory.
Close upon the heels of this comes the
annual meeting of Synod, somewhat of
a "fifth wheel" in our system of polity
as now constituted. In addition to these
regular meetings there are more or
less frequent meetings of Presbytery
(some of which are justified by the exigencies
of Presbyterial business and
some are not), ih called session, meetings
of "executive committees," "ad interim
committees" "commissions" and
what not! Now there are those who
justify frequent meetings of our church
courts on the ground that the pastors
and elders need the "inspirational" advantages
they offer. There is more or
less inspiration of course to be found
in the fellowship of the two or three
hurried and busy days of association in
f H dQfl T ?1,1 - * *
duiucimen, UUI 1 III 111 IV we Will an
admit that the inspirations are largely
those of personal fellowship rather
than of Intellectual stimulus. Our
church courts are not designed nearly
as much as they should be with a view
to their opportunities and obligations
in the way of stimulating interest and
enthusiasm in the larger and broader
aspects of the Master's Kingdom. We
take up the greater part of our limited
time in discussing in a dry and perfunctory
way what we have, or have
not, done (mainly the latter), with
scarcely a word as to how we may do
what we are essaying to do already
more economically or efficiently. I have
heard a good many presbyters recently
speak disparagingly of the presence
of representatives of our executive
committees and educational institutions
on the floors of our church courts with
the idea in view that the brief time allotted
to thetn for the presentation of
their causes is so much taken from
the gathering. With this idea I have no
sympathy whatever. I confess that the
chief value of many such meetings to
me is the lingering memory of fresh,
breezy, inspiring messages brought to
us by these visitors from the field at
large who have an ecclesiastical as well
as an inspirational right to present
their pleas before the representatives
of the churches. Many merely routine
matters that now take ilp hours of time
for consideration could well be left to
special committees to digest and report:
upon at some stated hour during
the meeting, and more time should be
given to devotional and inspirational
work.
Besides the above mentioned courts,
we are living in an age of conventions
of all sorts, many of which have practical
value and make demands upon
the time and thought of our ministers
and laymen so that we are not so dependent
upon our church courts alone
for inspiration as our fathers were.
Which remark brings us back to our
original proposition that we could dispense
with some, at least, of the meet
(575) 19
ings of our church courts. Now there
is scarcely a real reason, except out of
deference to the habits and customs
of the past, why there should be a stated
meeting of the Presbytery In the fall.
In our thinly Bettled regions of the
South, especially, to attend this meeting
involves a long and, in many cases,
expensive journey, with absence from
home the better part of a week right
ill the busiest part of the cotton harvesting
season. No layman who is
worth his salt in a church court or any
where else, no business man I mean,
can afford to be away from his business
at that season, the most critical in
our commercial economy. Many of our
pastors, too, men of limited means can
ill afTord to make a visit to 'Presbytery
and a visit to Synod within a week or
so of each other. In many cases to do
so would involve the expenditure of
nearly half a month's salary. As a
consequence not half of the ministers,
and not a third of the elders who should
attend both these gatherings, attend the
two In one season. Do away with the
fall meeting of Presbytery entirely and
set apart the afternoon of the second
day of Synod, as a standing rule, for
adjourned meetings of Presbytery at
which time all legitimate business that
should ordinarily come before that body
might be disposed of, and that too with
added advantage of a larger and more
representative attendance than would
have been possible at a regular meeting
hetd a week or so before. Such a
course would, in many jurisdictions, restore
Synod to its rightful place in the
consideration of the church, whereas it
is now, in some cases, being ignored or
despised. It will be found, too, ultimately,
I believe, that a two or three
weeks' session of the General Assembly
meeting each alternate year will be
more efficient and more economical than
our present custom of annual meetings.
What is saved to the church in the way
of annual railroad fare for the Commissioners
might well be devoted to
paying their hotel billB and other incidental
expenses and save the humiliation
of making the Assembly a sponging
institution upon the bounty of some
local church which iB compelled to
spend thousand of dollars upon the entertainment
of that court, when rightfully
It ought to be self-sustaining in
every particular. Once every two years
if the sessions are Just a little longer,
would amply suffice to transact all of
the business of the Assembly, while the
Stated Clerk could be empowered to
issue the statistical and other reports
annually, just as he does now.
In the alternate years when the Assembly
does not meet a great free-forall,,
pay-as-you-go convention might be
held at some convenient place reachable
by all the church, at which there
should be no "politics" allowed, no
routine reports tolerated, and only Inspirational
matters affecting the missionary,
educational and philanthropic
work of the church presented ably by
home talent, and imported genius as
well, to the vast edification of "delegates"
(how happy we will be for an
upiiuriunuy 10 use that word legitimately),
both men and women, from
every part of the wonderful Southland.
We have already had two such conventions,
let us make of them a permanent
feature of our policy. If every other
year is found too often, then every
fourth year might be designated as
sacredly set apart to this new and
promising feature in our Presbyterian
development.
J. Logan Irvin.
1027 E. Duval St., Jacksonville, Fla.
I^et men account for this wonderful
change since Christ! What did it?
How came it, if Jesus Christ be not
what he claimed to be?the Son of God,
the Saviour of the world!?Frances
Cable.